However you do it, read the Blind Owl

Hedayat's masterpiece has been banned in Iran (see below). Luckily it is freely available to purchase here in the UK and in the USA. It is also available online at the Iranchamber website.

Buy it or read it online, it is a magnificent work. That it has been banned is an utter disgrace.

The boot on the other foot

Today’s Independent carries a report about the Romanian newspaper Libertatea and its response to a hysterical story in Thursday’s Sun. It would seem that our (less than) beloved Currant Bun has met its match in the invective stakes.

On 16 November the Sun ran a report with the shocking headline “Migrants AIDS epidemic threat”. According to the story the UK was facing an Aids epidemic on the basis that two thirds of all new HIV cases were found in immigrants and that the problem was “set to hit crisis point when Romania and Bulgaria — nations with some of Europe’s highest Aids rates — join the EU next year.”

The source of the story was a Health Protection Agency report which showed that up to 70% of new HIV, TB and Malaria cases seem in the UK was due to migration. However, the report stressed that it reflected a small fraction of people not born in the UK. And that there was little evidence to suggest the general population was being placed at increased risk.

This did not stop the Sun putting a lurid spin on the report of course - why let the truth come in the way of some gratuitous hysteria?

The report seems to have hit a raw nerve with Libertatea: dashing to the defence of its fellow countrymen, devoted much of Friday’s (17 November)issue to hitting back at the Sun, suggesting the British newspaper train its eye a little closer to home if it wants to find evidence of wrongdoing.

It accuses the British of exporting paedophilia, drunkenness and hooliganism - a threat it says is far more serious than that posed by Romanians when the country officially joins the European Union in January. It goes on to lampoon the notion that "rapists, muggers, card forgers, whores and pimps will storm into Trafalgar Square" in 2007. In the editorial it blasts "too perfidious Albion" insisting the old colonial label is still apt. It also calls on Tony Blair to stand up against the Press for peddling myths demonising a nation which has committed troops to serve alongside British forces in Iraq.

"Starting about two months ago various UK publications, spearheaded by The Sun, flung upon Romanian citizens the sort of abjection which is hard-to-imagine," the editorial said. "Romania is presented as a cursed land, the Sodom and Gomorrah which will spill crime, disease and misfortune into England." It also used the edition to launch a campaign to highlight the epidemic of British paedophiles being countered by the Romanian authorities.


Well it seems that the Sun truly has met its match. For a sequel please stick the boot into the Mail and the Express!

New Iranian censorship purge

Today’s Guardian reports that Dozens of literary masterpieces and international bestsellers have been banned in Iran in a dramatic rise in censorship that has plunged the country's publishing industry into crisis.

Newly banned books include Farsi translations of Tracy Chevalier's best-seller Girl With a Pearl Earring and Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, the latter for upsetting clerics within Iran's tiny Christian community. Chevalier's novel had completed six print runs in Iran and earned hefty profits for its local publisher, Cheshme.

banned

The crackdown also covers classics, such as William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, and scores of works by Iranian authors, including all works by Sadegh Hedayat, a pre-revolutionary novelist and commentator whose books are renowned in several European countries. His short novel, the Blind Owl is a masterpiece. Some Iranian writers have vowed to withhold future books for publication.

banned

The clampdown has been headed by the hardline culture minister, Mohammed Hossein Saffar Harandi, a former revolutionary guard and close ally of Mr Ahmadinejad. Opening Iran's national book week festival this week, he said a tougher line was needed to stop publishers from serving a "poisoned dish to the young generation". He said some books deliberately gave Iranians a sense of inferiority and encouraged them to be lackeys of the west. "We have complaints against those who see books as only a market and are acting as assistants for evil," he said. "Sometimes the humiliation of Iranian youth is implied or suggested in the books. Sometimes the media transmits the concept that we Muslims and easterners lack proper means and, therefore, we should stretch our hands towards others."

His comments followed the publication of a parliamentary report that attacked Mr Khatami's presidency for creating what it said was a climate encouraging immoral behaviour, sex before marriage, mockery of religious traditions and secularism. One of the report's authors, Javad Aryianmanesh, vice-chairman of the parliamentary culture committeea said: "Due to cultural indulgence necessary supervision over artistic and cultural works did not take place."

The rise in book censorship mirrors repression in other spheres. In September the reformist newspaper Shargh was closed after publishing a cartoon depicting President George Bush, disguised as a horse, debating with a donkey under a halo, widely seen as representing Mr Ahmadinejad. The publishers launched a replacement newspaper, Rouzegar, but it was ordered to close after five days.

Iran censorship

Ferenc Puskas RIP

Hungarian football legend Ferenc Puskas, has died aged 79 after a long battle against pneumonia. He had been in intensive care at a Budapest hospital for two months but had also been confined to hospital for six years with Alzheimer's disease.

He led his country's 'Golden Team' of the early 1950s, and was part of the first foreign side to beat England at Wembley, winning 6-3 on 25 November 1953 . Prolific both domestically and on the international scene, Puskas scored 83 times in 84 matches for Hungary between 1945 and 1956, including two goals in the Magical Magyars' famous match against England. He also starred in a subsequent 7-1 win in Budapest which saw Hungary made favourites for the 1954 World Cup, but an injury limited his impact in Switzerland and they lost in the final to Germany.

Puskas scored 512 goals in 528 matches for Real Madrid from 1958 and in 1962 he took out Spanish citizenship in time to play for his adopted country at the 1962 World Cup. Playing alongside Alfredo di Stefano, he was the cornerstone of a succession of domestic and European glories, scoring four goals in Real's 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in a remarkable final at Hampden Park in 1960, and winning the European Cup three times in all.

Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón added: "This is one of the saddest days for the Madrid fans, He had many friends and was a man liked by everyone, admired as a professional and a person. The Madrid fans in general, and those of my age in particular, will feel a great emptiness for the loss of one our childhood heroes."

Puskas was truly one of the greats of the game. Click here for a fuller biography.

Ferenc Puskas football

Channel 4 finally has the spine to broadcast Saddam’s Road to Hell

Back in July, I picked up on an Observer article by Nick Cohen regarding a film called
Saddam’s Road to Hell. Made by reporter Gwynne Roberts it focuses on massacre of 800 Barzani clan members as a collective punishment for the Kurdish revolt against Saddam.

The film follows Mohammed Ihsan, Kurdistan's Human Rights Minister, as he sets off to find the bodies of the dead. His journey takes him to backstreet shops where lawyers looking for evidence can buy documents looted from secret police archives, skeletons being dug out of mass graves in the desert and snuff videos of torturers blowing up prisoners or throwing them from rooftops. All the time the threat of assassination hangs over the investigation.

a victim of the Barzani clan massacre

After sitting on it for months Channel 4 finally shows some backbone and will broadcast this film on Monday 20 November at 8pm. Why Channel 4 has not shown it before is incomprehensible but it is good to see that it has given it a prime time slot.

If you cannot get to see the Channel 4 showing The Road to Hell is to view here. I would highly recommend you watch it: its facts have been triple-checked, the producers present other points of view and the reporter shrinks into the background allowing Iraqis to speak for themselves.


Saddam Barzani massacre

Mimi in her happy place

Mimi as happy as ever. This week's entry for the Friday Ark and Carnival of the Cats


cats

I want one of these NOW!

I know this story is a couple of days old but this is very possibly the greatest scientific advance of all time.
Engineers in Australia have developed a new T-shirt which enables the wearer to play air guitar and create real noise in the process. Richard Helmer and a team of researchers at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Australia's national science agency, fashioned the "wearable instrument shirt" out of an ordinary T-shirt fitted with an array of sensors.

The built-in technologies measure the movements of the wearer, allowing them to "play" by moving one hand to mimic guitar chord patterns and using the other to pluck virtual strings. The shirt is hooked up to a computer that is able to read the signals and turn them into guitar sounds. The researchers say it allows anyone to thrash out their impressions of Led Zeppelin without ever picking up a real guitar.

"It's an easy-to-use virtual instrument that allows real-time music making, even by players without significant musical or computing skills. It allows you to jump around, and the sound generated is just like an original MP3," said Dr Helmer.

Anything that enhances the air guitar experience surely deserves the Nobel prize - the Nobel prize for RAWK N ROLL!

Rosindell, evangelists and an Early Day Motion

Last week’s Romford Recorder carried an article titled “MP unmoved by ‘evil’ Islam row”. Unfortunately I missed last week’s Recorder and the online edition has only a small part of the article. Always willing to bash my poltroon of an MP I was curious to find out what this story was about. Apparently it is about an evangelical charity which may put evangelism above charity and whose head is not averse to making intemperate comments about Islam.

On 25 October Liberal Democrat MP Timothy Farron tabled an Early Day Motion (EDM) celebrating the work of Operation Christmas Child:

“That this House celebrates the Operation Christmas Child shoebox appeal run by Samaritan's Purse, which arranges for families in the UK to provide a sealed shoebox of Christmas gifts to be sent to children overseas who are less fortunate; congratulates the Westmorland Gazette for promoting this campaign in South Cumbria; and encourages hon. Members to take part in the scheme and to promote the appeal in their constituencies.”

Andrew Rosindell was one of a number of MPs that signed this motion presumably in the wish to be associated with a good cause. On the surface this seems to be a harmless enough motion even if the motivation of some of the signatories may have been self-serving.

Operation Christmas Child, an initiative of Samaritans Purse International(SPI) seems worthy in that it aims to distribute millions of shoe boxes filled by volunteers with sweets and gifts to underprivileged children in Eastern Europe and Africa. However, there have been allegations that the organisation’s motives are not quite as altruistic as it seems.

In 2002 the Guardian reported that its activities came with strings – the main objective being “…about more than Christmas presents. It is about introducing children and their families to God's greatest gift - His Son, Jesus Christ” according to the organisation’s head, Franklin Graham (son of Billy). The Rev David Applin, chief executive of Samaritan’s Purse, admits that a religious pamphlet - is distributed with the boxes but no box recipient is forced to accept religious literature and none is distributed in Muslim countries. However, in 2001, the charity was criticised in a New York Times article for holding prayer sessions in several villages in El Salvador before showing residents how to build emergency shelters following an earthquake.
Graham has condemned Islam on a number of occasions: In his 2002 book, The Name, he wrote: "The God of Islam is not the God of the Christian faith. The two are different as lightness and darkness."

When becoming aware of Graham’s views at least one MP withdrew his signature. Rosindell on the other hand apparently stated he supported the charity's work but that he could not be expected to check the bona fides of every group he endorsed in an EDM. (This is a person who put down one marking the return of Rupert Bear to British TV).

Leaving Rosindell aside I have a huge problem with any charity that would even consider using its work to proselytise, something that well respected charities such as Christian Aid or CAFOD would never do. If it is true that that SCI has ever attached any strings to its aid then it is ultimately self defeating unless you wish to create “Rice Christians”.

Ofra Haza - Im Nin Alu (an early verssion)

An early version of Ofra Haza's biggest UK hit. This one is from 1979. Ofra Haza would have been 19 or 20 at the time.

Music for a chest infection..... and a pulled muscle from coughing far too much.

Hmm this is my 401st post

Meena - an inspiration

Meena, the founder of RAWA (the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) has been nominated as one of the Heroes of the past 60 years by the Asian edition of Time Magazine. I consider Meena to be an inspirational figure. It is heartening to see her name alongside those of Gandhi, Mother Theresa and Aung Sang Suu Kyi. Her life was cut short at the age of 30, most probably murdered by the KHAD, the Afghan puppets of the KGB.

Meena called the women of Afghanistan sleeping lions, pledging that one day they would awake and roar. In 1977, at the age of 20, she launched the country's first movement for women's rights, calling her group the Revolutionary Association for the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA). Its goals: the restoration of democracy, equality for men and women, social justice, and the separation of religion from the affairs of the state. But in a country mired in tradition and occupied by the Soviet Union, Meena's beliefs were threatening enough to get her assassinated. Ten years after founding RAWA, she was kidnapped and killed; many Afghans held agents of the local communist intelligence agency responsible.

Although she was only 30 when she died, Meena had already planted the seeds of an Afghan women's rights movement based on the power of knowledge. She believed that if women were able to read and write, that if they could communicate and learn about the world, they would discover their own strength and could make a difference in their own society. After the Soviet invasion in 1979 she established schools and orphanages for refugees pouring over the border into Pakistan. Those schools offered opportunities never available previously to young Afghan women. "Meena didn't just give me an education; she taught me that I had the right to live a better life," says Sahar Saba, an early student at RAWA's first school in Quetta.

Today, for the first time in Afghan history, women have campaigned for, and won, seats in the national parliament. One of these women is Gulhar Jalal, a childhood friend of Meena's and an illiterate widow who now represents the province of Kunar. "I ran," she says, "because this was Meena's dream."




Meena RAWA Time heroes